Official Pinter*Mel Project #10 - Fun with Vintage Scrabble Tiles

First and foremost, I'm sorry I've been kinda out of the craft blogging loop for the past couple weeks, BUT.....


WAIT FOR IT.....
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I GOT ENGAGED!!! 

So now all that creepy wedding pinning I do on Pinterest can be for real!!! Yay!!! So expect this blog to take a DIY Wedding turn come January 2013. 


Anyways, back to the craft at hand. 

The Inspiration: Scrabble Tile Family Signs


First thing I did was hit up eBay for a killer deal on 500 vintage Scrabble tiles. Bonus; they were from Quebec, so a) I didn't wait 2+ weeks for them, and b) I didn't get hosed by US shipping. 

Then once I picked out all the tiles for the Scrabble tile family signs (which was more painstaking that you think, Y's are few and far between and extremely popular in pretty much all names), I moseyed over to my local purveyor of shadow boxes and emptied their stock (and for the record, they're still out). 

Then I laid out the Scrabble tiles on the matting and centre them as much as possible so it doesn't look lopsided. 

Once satisfied with placement, I used Mod Podge Matte to affix the tiles to the matting. 

While waiting for the tiles to finish drying, I Windexed the crap out of the glass. 

Then popped the matting back into the shadow box and voila! 

But wait, there's all that blank space in the bottom right-hand corner, something needs to go there...something both my fiancé and I love....

LEGO!!!

I used Glue Dots and Mod Podge Outdoor to get these Minifigs to stay put. 

Yay!!! Much better. 

My parents came up to Ottawa the day after we got engaged, so I decided to make them a Christmas ornament. 

First I dug out the letters. J, also difficult to find! 

Then I glued them to a piece of card stock using Mod Podge Matte. 

After they were completely dry I cut them out using plain ole scissors, and my razor to get in the edges. 

I used a piece of ribbon for the ornament hanger. Cut a piece long enough to fit around a tree branch, glued it down in a criss-cross on the back of the ornament. 

Then to secure the ornament hanger I cut out another piece of card stock and stuck it to the back of the ribbon and ornament; making a ribbon sammich. 

Trimmed off the excess using my razor. 

And there you have it! An adorable, personalized, Christmas ornament!

For all you crafty types who are looking for something ridiculously simple, yet awesome, to do with your children for Christmas presents this year, THIS IS IT. Seriously, paper, glue, Scrabble tiles, and some ribbon. That's it. You are only limited by your imagination! 


Have you used Scrabble tiles, or any other game tiles or computer keys to make something personalized? If so, please share in the comments below, I'd LOVE to hear about your projects!


Cheers, 

-Melissa

Official Pinter*Mel Project FAIL #2 OR How my intended bowl is now an awesome coaster.

I had a plan to make little bowls for Christmas present presentation this year. I thought a cute little bowl with an owl stamped into the bottom would have been a nice way to hold the homemade beauty goodies I plan on giving out as presents. This was the plan...it's a good thing I'm flexible, and willing to improvise. 

The Inspiration: DIY Lace Bowl

So my first mistake was buying Sculpey Original, not that there's anything wrong with the product, it just was the wrong version of this product for this particular project.

You see, most of the DIY air-dry clay recipes call for 3 cups of white glue. I don't know if any of you have purchased white glue lately, but buying enough to get 3 cups worth isn't exactly cheap. Also, making this stuff is kinda labour-intensive. I wanted to see if I could make this pretty quickly to gauge if it was going to sink or swim for Christmas presents. 

Yay! Sculpey! (and an owl stamp) 

I cut about a quarter of the whole slab off. 

And then proceeded to knead the ever-loving sh*t out of it. 

Then I grabbed my trusty rolling pin and rolled it out...but not too thin; bowl thin. 

Once I got it evened out, I grabbed one of my smaller bowls as a template. 

Then using a butter knife and the spatchula thingy from this post, I cut it out. 

I evened out the edges a bit, and then pressed my adorable owl stamp into the middle of the future bowl.

Then I gently pressed the circle-owl into the upright bowl I used as the template. 

Remember how back at the beginning of the post I indicated that this was the wrong Sculpey product for this project, this became apparent to me at this stage. In order for this product to dry it has to go in the oven, it can't just air dry in the bowl. I needed an air-dry version of this Sculpey product.  SO I FRANTICALLY looked around my house for a like-sized bowl I could repress my circle-owl into and then put in the oven. 

Alas, it was not to be. 

So I did my best to form the edges while my over preheated to 275F. 

While my bowl-fail/coaster-win was baking, I decided to use the left-over scraps to make some ornaments for Christmas. 

In the oven you go! 

Once my bowl-fail/coaster-win had cooled down enough, I threw on some paint. 

And then I threw a layer of Mod Podge Outdoor over top to seal it. 

[Pro Tip: Skip this step. It made my coaster sticky, and now my mug sticks to it. Very annoying.]

Yay! Coaster-win!!!

Moral of the story - buy a clay product that will air dry, OR don't be a lazy ass like me and make your own air-dry stuff. 

Cheers, 

-Melissa

Official Pinter*Mel Project FAIL #1: The Great Pumpkin Fail of 2012

I'd been perusing Pinterest looking for alternate ways to jazz up pumpkins for a DIY Fall-look around the house. 

The Inspiration: Chevron painted pumpkins 

I purchased this perfect teeny pumpkin at my local grocery store for 99 cents. I didn't want to invest big money in pumpkins until I knew what I was going to do, and that what I was going to do was going to work. 

I painted this cutie pie white. 
(PRO TIP: If you're planning on painting a pumpkin white, just get a white pumpkin and save yourself about 3 coats of paint.)

I let this pumpkin dry for like 24 hours. I wanted to make sure it was good and dry before I started putting more paint on it. 

Then I figured I'd tape a pattern on the pumpkin to paint. I wasn't talented enough to do chevrons, so I chose an easier pattern to start with. 

So I was taping away, when I noticed that one of my pieces of tape was a bit off centre, so I started to gently pull it off to reposition it when THIS happened...

That piece of bastard tape took the paint right off my pumpkin. I thought maybe it was just an isolated incident, and proceeded to try another piece of tape on the other side. It happened again. It happened with every piece of tape I put on the damn thing. By the time I had taken all the tape off I was left with my original orange pumpkin. 

The moral of the story: Put the tape on BEFORE you paint. Yes, you'll be relegated to orange as one of your primary colour choices, but you won't end up with a naked pumpkin. One that SHOULD still have three coats of paint on it. Alternatively, you could also just freehand a design or drawing on the painted pumpkin, just as long as you don't put tape on the actual paint you should be fine. 

Don't make the same mistake folks! 

Cheers, 

Melissa

Official Pinter*Mel Project #1 - DIY Flower Wall Art

The Inspiration: Pinterest - DIY Flower Wall Art

The Progress: 

We have a very lonely wall in our living room. 

So, I purchased a 14x14 canvas from Wallack's, and proceeded to paint it a neutral beige colour using Amsterdam Acrylic Paint. 

Pro Tip: When painting your canvas you want to water down the paint a bit, otherwise you'll end up using the entire tube trying to get even coverage.  

While your canvas is drying, you can start tracing your stencil onto the paper you have selected to use. 

Note: Please excuse the picture quality. I promise as this blog evolves that I will strive to take more centered and professional-like photos. 

My ever-so high-tech stencil ended up being a piece of an empty toilet paper roll folded in half. It worked out perfectly! 

The the time-consuming part of the adventure began...

...and continued. 

I believe when all was said and done I had cut out approximately 120 "petals". I had quite a few left over when I was finished, which I will use for another craft. 

The important thing about this kind of craft is to lay it out before you start gluing it to the canvas. I'm a firm follower of the "measure twice, cut once" philosophy, and believe me, once you Mod Podge something to a surface, you want to make sure you have it in the right spot. 

Once you're satisfied with your design, the Mod Podging can begin! It's okay if some of the petals hang over the edge of the canvas. Once you're finished gluing all the petals onto the surface, you can turn your attention to those. Depending on your preference you can either cut them so they're flush to the edge of the canvas, or do what I did, which was fold them over the edge and glue them down. 

Once everything is glued down, I recommend going over the entire thing with a thin coat of Mod Podge. It will seal the paper and canvas, and will ensure that nothing ever comes peeling off, which is especially important if you live in a climate that's not friendly to paper-based crafts. I use Mod Podge's Gloss product. It's excellent for this kind of art. 

This shouldn't take long to dry, as long as you've applied only a thin layer that is. Once it's fully dry you're finished! Time to find a place to hang it! 

The Final Product: 

Now our living room wall is lonely no more! 

However, being the perpetual fuss-budget I am, and having a pile of left over petals, I plan on making some accent pieces for this wall. The plan is to use three or four 5x7 canvasses, using the same method in this post in order to make this wall a little more artfully balanced. 

I will update once I do this, with photos! 

Total Approximate Cost: Canvas $13, Paint $6, Paper $10, Mod Podge (used) $4. 

Have you done this project? Please post links to the outcomes in the comments section, or tweet me at @PinterMel. 

Update: I've added two smaller canvasses to even the wall out. 

Melissa